A retrospective study on drug interaction for pediatric in-patients at Central Public Hospital Haji Adam Malik, Medan for the period of January-June 2012

Background: Drug interaction is one of the factors causing a drug-related problem. Pharmacoepidemiology of drug interaction for pediatric patients at Central Public Hospital Haji Adam Malik, Medan has not come to light. The objective of this study was to find out the correlation between the amount of drug, the age and sex of patients, the number of patients diagnosed with drug interaction, the drug involved, the frequency, the mechanisms of drug interaction, and its severity levels for pediatric in-patients at Central Public Hospital Haji Adam Malik, Medan. Methods: The data for this study were collected by conducting a retrospective analysis to 232 medical records, which were kept from January to June 2012. The data collected for this study included demography, the amount of drug, and patient diagnoses. The drug interaction was confirmed in the website http://www.drugs.com and Tatro Drug Facts interaction. To determine the correlation between dependent and independent variables, Spearman's bivariate correlation (for amount of drug, age of patient, and diagnoses) and Mann-Whitney's Comparative Test (for sex) were used. Results: The frequency of drug-drug interaction was 75.43%. Based on drug interaction mechanism, the interaction was divided into pharmacokinetics interaction (24.76%), pharmacodynamics interaction (3.45%), and unknown interaction (71.78%). The drugs commonly involved in drug interactions were dexamethasone, vitamin E, captopril, spironolactone, phenytoin, and furosemide. The severity levels were major (8.83%), moderate (66.41%), and minor (24.76%). Conclusion: The statistical data analysis results showed that there was a significant correlation between the amount of drugs and the number of diagnoses, while age and sex did not show any significant correlation.